Help! Breakdown! Not sure if it's tranny, transfer case or rear end blown

This issue just happened today - but I've been slowly noticing a resistance when reversing in 2wd mode.

Anyway today, and I'm not sure if I'm imagining things but it seemed like the transfer case shifter popped into 4 high when I was backing into a driveway today. Popped it back into 2 high. I might have knocked it accidentally, but who knows? All seemed normal after that.
Arrived at another job about an hour later, over shot the driveway and backed up - same issue. I played around with the shifter, trying all the positions, even got out to make sure my hubs weren't locked. In the 3 months I've owned my '97 Tacoma I've only had it in 4wd mode twice. Checked, and they were unlocked.

So anyway, I pulled into the driveway - a fairly steep grade and parked into place, nose outward - but this time something was really screwy. Now there was major resistance forward and backward. It actually feels like it's in 4wd mode - really stiff, but it will hardly budge.

I wonder if it's the transfer case or my tranny - or did I blow my rear end? Idle is fine, all gears in tranny and transfer case shifter all have decent movement, but maybe something is not engaging or disengaging.

This is possibly the full manifestation of something I was noticing slowly building before, but I'll get into that later in the thread.

 

I just got off the phone with an acquaintance of mine who's a tow truck operator... he's quite sure by me telling my story that it sounds like low tranny fluid.

I'm crossing my fingers.

 

If it is then I would think it could be toast, but idk. Maybe your brakes are sticking really bad? Or if it is engaging 4wd on it's own then your actuator could be going bad.

I hope nothing major is wrong.

 

hopefully its just that, I'm mentally retarded when it comes to automotive mechanical stuff but keep us updated

 

Now that's a part I've NEVER heard of.

 

Which one?

 

Actuator. But if it was that, wouldn't it just affect the 4x4 mode?
What I'm experiencing is it takes exrtraordinary effort to move the truck forwards or backwards in 2wd or 4wd.

 

My bad, forgot you had manual hubs. So you don't have the actuators that I was talking about.

I don't believe it could be your diff, because you would of heard a loud bang and probably would have had alot of resistance beforehand.

When was the last time you changed your tranny, transfer case or diff fluids?

 

Haha, well good point - I had an appointment a couple of weeks ago booked to switch EVERYTHING to synthetic, but I missed the appointment and as it turned out the fellas at the shop were up backed up to their eyeballs in work so they hardly minded me being a no-show.

I had it thoroughly looked over just before I committed to buying it and everything seemed fine.
It kind of makes sense if the manual tranny fluid is low, because my driveway is on a slope and I park nose-up every day, and I wouldn't be surprised if it was slowly dripping out the rear of the tranny - are manuals as subject to this as automatics? I would think so.

 

A google search of tacoma actuator led me to a thread on the YotaTech forum... another part name I'd never heard of... Automatic Differential Disconnect.

 

So would neither of those parts (Auto diff disconnect, and Actuator) apply to my situation, since I have manual hubs? For the buddy of mine who sold me the truck he pointed out the value of having manual hubs... simplicity perhaps.

 

Actuator is for push-button engagement. You said you knocked it into 4HI. You have a manual linkage. You have to engage your 4WD using a shift lever.

You have manual hubs, so you have no ADD. ADD is for automatic hubs.


Automatic? Automatics do funny things when low on fluid..so check it.
Manuals just grind and hard to shift when low..and then they heat up and break

Sounds like you have a binding somewhere. It could be alot of things.

 

Definitely could be many things that would cause your truck to act that way. Could be the differential, could be the transfer case, could be the transmission. Don't think it's your hubs cause that would affect both forward and reverse. Like stated before because you have manual hubs you don't have an ADD or actuator. I could be any number of things that would cause you to be sluggish in reverse. If you were low on ATF you would feel it in your forward gears as well. Check all your fluid levels. Top off anything that's low, if it's brown change it and pray that you didn't burn anything up.

Sorry there's just too many variables to narrow this one down. I would start with the fluids that are easiest to change (i.e. differential, transfer case and transmission) then once you eliminate those, then move on to paying someone to figure it out.

 

OK guys I've got it figured out... it's actually really embarrassing how simple it was, so go easy on me ...

It was a stuck e brake cable. Holy crap. Why I didn't think of this I have no idea, because the e brakes are notorious on these vehicles. I asked my mechanic if it's possible if when I reversed into place if it might have shifted somehow to grab, and he said yes.

The shifter going from 2wd into 4wd... I must have been imagining that, as I was frantically trying to figure out what the hell was happening.

Unbelievable, isn't it?